Growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, Sulene moved to the U.S. at nineteen years old for music. Since 2015 she’s toured stages worldwide as the guitarist for Nate Ruess’ (of fun.) live band. Her singing and playing has been heard everywhere from Jimmy Kimmel Live! to the East Room of the White House, performing for President Obama. During this time, you’ve most-likely heard her voice during Halle Berry shower scenes or Al Pacino stage diving, as the multi-instrumentalist has written original music for and performed on the scores for several TV shows and films, such as Ray Donovan and The Affair. Her work is also regularly heard in TV commercials, being featured in spots for Nike, Verizon, Microsoft, Dior, and many more.
Though her experience is vast, her newest work speaks the loudest in terms of her unique voice. The forthcoming EP, he•don•ic features the singles, “whiskey.weed.sex.candy.”, “photo booth”, and “i still think you’re so fake”. Sulene delves deep into what addiction means, what purpose hedonic pleasures serve, and writes with vulnerability about her experiences with both. Exploring a darker side of her character and production, she’s labeled the newest record as gothic-disco-party music. As well as creating her own record from start to finish in her one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, she’s also delved into filming and editing her own music videos and artwork with this release, giving a full 360 view of her newest art.
Sulene’s previous EP’s Strange and Fire Escaping have been featured in Billboard, Buzzfeed Earmilk, as well as Spotify’s Indie Pop and New Music Friday playlists in several countries. Sulene was also feature in Rolling Stone for her contribution of the acoustic version of her song “Diamond” for the Rough Trade compilation album Talk – Action = Zero. And by the way, Sulene did the motion capture for the bassist/guitarist character in Rock Band VR.
We chatted with Sulene on how she uses the Prophet-6 in her music:
What made you choose the Prophet-6?
I’d heard a lot about Sequential and Prophets specifically before I started thinking about buying an analog synth. I ended up trying out a lot of analog synths in different stores and fell in love with the Prophet-6. I remember clicking through presets with headphones on and becoming inspired to write on the spot, so I decided to go with that one. It does everything I need, and much more.
How are you using it?
I use my Prophet-6 in my artist project (Sulene), and also in a lot of my film scores. I’ve done a few scores for thrillers that are basically only the Prophet — there’s just an endless arsenal of inspiring sounds, and so many ways to warp them and make them sound crazy and out of this world. For my solo project, I use the Prophet for industrial/ electro sounds.
What is one of your favorite things about it?
The depth you can create in a sound! Something as small as just turning the slop button a little bit creates a whole new dimension to your tone. I also love the arpeggiator.
What does it give you that other synths might not?
In my experience, it’s easier to understand than other synths. The parameters are laid out in a way that makes sense and gives you a lot of freedom to experiment.
Any interesting tricks or techniques you would like to share?
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